Talk:Ant (Powder Game element)
Study on Ant's Behavior I studied the behavior of the ant. Its movement is partially random. In some configurations, it randomly selects between several options. Because of this, it is nearly impossible to write an entire rule-set for the ant. The randomness also means it is NOT Turing Complete (Unless some sort of cage design to remove randomness could be created, which I doubt), I have managed to disprove that. It isn't Langton's ant, because Langton's ant does not utilize randomness at all. (To those of you saying it is; Correlation does not imply causation) Just because it LOOKS similar, it is completely different. : Gigi7 - I think I've got it. Imagine 9 pixels in a 3x3 grid with squares labeled: : 1 | 2 | 3 : ____________ : 4 | Ant | 6 : ____________ : 7 | 8 | 9 : To predict the ant's next move, the ant is to be centered in (Ant) and facing (2). If the ant is not facing (2), mentally rotate the grid so that it is; the ant's next move is based on its current orientation. : Rules: : To predict an ant's movement, use the following questionnaire. Sometimes, the ant will go faster through steps, but this fastforwarding will not change its course. Imagine that "alive" means the pixel is solid that the charged ant is working with (like ice with an ice-charged ant) and "dead" with an empty pixel. : Question 1: Are (2), (3), and (6) all alive? : If yes, the ant will MOVE to (2), make (8) DEAD, and ROTATE 90 degrees LEFT. : If no, go to Question 2. : Question 2: Is (2) alive? : If yes, the ant will MOVE to (2) and ROTATE 90 degrees LEFT. : If no, go to Question 3. : Question 3: Is (3) alive? : If yes, the ant will MOVE to (3) WITHOUT ROTATION. : If no, go to question 4. : Question 4: Is (6) alive? : If yes, the ant will ROTATE 90 degrees RIGHT and MOVE to (2). : If no, the ant will ROTATE 180 degrees and turn what is now (7) and (8) ALIVE. : This rule set does not account for block or any other dots. It's only for the material the ant is using and empty space. Gigi7 (talk) 02:32, January 13, 2014 (UTC) Turing completeness The ant is turing-complete ?!?!?!?!?!?! Really??? Mister IP , could you please explain from where you have got this information. I can imagine this to be true, but if we don't have a reliable source, we have to remove this statement. For all the non-computing-scientists the short version: Turing-completeness means, that the ant could compute everything which is computable, given enough time and space. --Justme2 00:55, 3 December 2008 (UTC) Oh, I haven't looked at the date. This edit was over a month ago. --Justme2 01:07, 3 December 2008 (UTC) We had researched langton's ant over at the ODBF, and believe that the ant's pattern is directly related: It the ant is on an element it makes a path of, it turns it blakc and goeas left If the ant is on another element, inclusing clear, it will turn it into the element it was assigned to and turn right. That is langon's ant. Ant is very, very similar.--Sand master 13:14, 14 December 2008 (UTC) I think not, because... Just put 1 dot of ant over 1 dot of metal, scale in, and press Enter Enter Enter... It doesn't move at all like Langton's ant, which would make a giant random blob of metal. Or predict what the Langton's ant would do in a pattern, and put pg ant there. Doesn't work for me. Bildramer 17:25, 8 January 2009 (UTC) ...but Langton's Ant starts on an infinite white grid. This Ant cannot do that - it starts on a fully Clear grid *with one speck of its seed element*. What might produce different results is activating an Ant, then pausing and filling the room with, say, Metal, and then stepping once and putting one Metal over the Ant's starting spot. ::goes to test:: ~anon It is NOT Langton's ant, i have checked. PS: I am researching the Ant's capabilities, and I've almost completed a set of rules to describe an uncharged ant when it contacts a solid. Ant's State of Matter Isn't Ant considered a Living Powder? 17:33, 15 August 2009 (UTC) :Yes! --Justme2 12:17, 16 August 2009 (UTC) ::Referring to the article States of matter it's a Non-Newtonian Fluid -- page • talk 16:29, October 28, 2009 (UTC) You made that edit. Wow... Now I'll have to go change it back BoneSpear 00:30, November 18, 2009 (UTC) Ant is a liquid.The poisoner 14:43, December 27, 2010 (UTC)